House Wren singing with mouth open while perched on skinny branch against green background

Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020

Recording bird sounds has a been a source of great joy for us, as well as a boon to our birding-by-ear skills. First, making a recording forces us to listen intentionally for much longer than we may have otherwise, which helps commit vocalizations to memory. Then, uploading audio to The Macaulay Library allows us to revisit a recording with the helpful visual addition of its corresponding spectrogram.
 
In 2020, we uploaded 270 audio recordings to our eBird checklists. We picked our favorites to compile this Top 10 list, presented in chronological order. We hope you enjoy them! Continue reading “Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020”

Eared Grebe with bright red eye swimming in water

An Afternoon in Bodega Bay

In the recent months of the pandemic, we’ve mainly stayed close to home to do our part to curb holiday spread and then because of the regional stay-at-home order during December and January (now recently lifted). This has meant foregoing our normally frequent visits to the bird-haven that is Bodega Bay.
 
Yesterday, at long last, we headed to the harbor for the first time in four months. A lovely winter day greeted us – sunny and mild, with barely any wind. Continue reading “An Afternoon in Bodega Bay”